We like the cars....

I was driving into work this morning when I realized a little quirk about me.  I mean its one a million quirks I have, but this one made me feel like a good person.  While driving in horrific traffic that takes me an entire hour to drive all of 15 miles (all freeway miles, mind you), I notice that when large box trucks or semis are constantly at a disadvantage to change lanes in the endless maze that is my morning commute.  I always slow down and flash my lights and let these poor guys overs.  They get stuck with people unwilling to give up those precious few seconds they would lose by allowing these drivers over.  These guys are stuck driving 55 mph even when it isn't slow out.

Yes, I know they are paid, but when you job pretty much bums out people stuck behind you (or next to you), then I think that me letting them over gives them a little "hey that rocked" moment in their days full of "ugh".

Is that silly?  Probably.  I really don't care, it makes me feel good.  I hope it makes them feel good.  I don't have any pictures of semis that I have taken myself, so here are some Google searched ones!

APB on where you be

Where the hell have I been?!?!?  Well, I had a bunch of dental work done and my face is all swollen like.  This makes me super pleasant.  So, instead of cloggin up the blog with a bunch of poor pitiful me rants, I opted to lay low.

Don't get me wrong, I am still all tender mouthed and hurty, but I just couldn't stay away!  I have wasted this whole week being laid up recuperating. I have watched a ton of New Girl (It was so awful in the beginning.  So Awful.  It's just bearable right now), I got my mountain of laundry done, and I had a fantastic weekend with my lovely visiting friends.  I am just not feeling up to par, so the Wii has sat lonely and unused this week.

Husbunny and I watch Fright Night.  I really liked it.  The cinematography was really mesmerizing, especially the flashlight-dropped-through-the hole-in-the-floor scene. And DUH, of course I liked it, it had David Tennant in it!  He is my FAVORITE Doctor.

I have been doing really well with packing healthy lunches.  My favorite this week is salad greens with grape tomatoes, tuna, red onions and balsamic vinaigrette. It is surprisingly filling. 

So there we go.  A real post!  I am still brand spanking new to this whole "write your own blog" thing.  It is nerve wracking!  And scary!  But I like it.  It is challenging and I feel like I need that in my life.  

It's all good

This was on the white board in my doctor's office.
 It is another patient's cartoon of him and it cracked me up.

Well, I survived.  Made it tot he doctor yesterday and the dramatic pause in detail delivery resulted in this:

"It's not torn.  It actually looks like the early signs of Arthritis.  Since it isn't that bad yet, and you are pretty young, I say go live it up, because eventually you will need knee surgery and you won't be able to do squat."

I absolutely love the honesty my doctor has.  He has always just laid it out there. ahhaha!

So I am good to go with a possibly surgery way far down the line. SWEET!  Knee = a.ok.

I did have bad news yesterday.  I cracked a tooth and had to get a crown put in.  I look at it this way, my mouth is royal!

I am pretty excited for this weekend.  Husbunny and I have some friends in from Seattle visiting!  I have seen my friend in about 2 years so I am pretty excited that she is here.  I hope to remember to take lots of pictures so that I have good stuff to look at on this here blog!  Eventually I hope to have followers ahahhaha. But if I never do, I am ok with it as this is good for my creative soul.

Speaking of.....Husbunny and I have been talking a lot about moving up to Portland, OR.  We were supposed to go about 2 years ago, but I was injured and needed to stay with my current job to get the insurance benes.  I also had taken on a "better" role in the company (it was not as it was advertised to be, that will be a different post) and was staying to hopefully build up a savings nest egg. 

We are revisiting that whole moving thing and BOY am I falling in love with it!  I have always loved the Pacific Northwest and the super saturated green of the landscape.  Portland just felt like a good fit.  And again, more on this in future posts.  

I took an arrow to the knee.....

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow.

They are going to find out why it is that every time we go hiking, my knees swell up and turn red putting me out of commission for about a half an hour.  I can only make it about an hour and a half before the swelling.

It is rather annoying.  I love to hike!  Husbunny takes me to some pretty amazing places.

So there is nuthin but a short post today.  I am nervous about tomorrow and I don't want to whine about how freaked out I am on here.

You take away the very part of me.....

I don't know what it is, if I am not paying attention, if I am not as graceful as I thought I was, if I am a klutz, or if it is just destiny, but it seems like every year, without fail, I hack off some part of me in a freak cooking accident.

Last year was the left pointer finger tip whilst cutting corn on the cob.

The year before that I was over zealously chewing gum and bit the tiniest tip of my tongue off.

The year before that, I fell and grated a bunch of right elbow off.

What happened this year you ask?  Well I was in my kitchen last night, gearing up for my first ever "cooking post complete with photos".  I was going to show you all how I created sweet and sour tofu.  I had it all set up and ready.  I got 2 shots of the ingredients in the whole forms.  I was using the mandolin slicer and had just finished slicing up some glorious yellow squash, when I brazenly moved onto the carrots.

Had I offended a carrot prior to this?  Was I not gentle in their removal of their bag home?  Apparently, I had done something UNFORGIVABLE to these root vegetables.  Or my cat.  Because that little bastard chose that moment to flip out and jump on me while I was slicing those carrots (without the handle the mandolin slicer came with, I know, its my own fault) when FLIT.  Off came the tip of my right pinky, and onto the floor. And that bastard cat took off with it!  Now It may seem like I chopped a whole segment off.  It is my awe at the amount of pain and blood of the situation that makes my words fall out my mouth all exageratey.  It was a small piece.  Still, that piece is gone.  And I have  a(nother)  finger with a divot missing out of it.

The food was good.  But you all will never know what it looked like.  RIP Pinky Tip.

WWID Weekend: What I did

     Hold on to your hats, and be envious of my weekend spent totally cleaning my house.  Yup, that's all I did.  The Husbunny had to work and I was at a loss of things to do, so I cleaned.

     There is something very therapeutic about cleaning.  I also find I can only really do it if he is not at home.  Otherwise he, very sweetly, wants to help.  All that does is create more little stations of messes for me to clean up.  I find it to be almost zen like to be scrubbin on my floors listening to 80s and 90s hip hop.

    
Sorry for the short post, but that is literally all that happened!

I was afraid for my life

This sounds like an exaggeration.  I assure you, it is not.
It's trash day, which means I have to go out into the backyard and finagle the trashcans through the garage and out into the alley way.  Easy.

Tonight I was trying to take the kitchen trash to the cans.  We may or may not have over filled this bag.  I had to carry the the entire trashcan out to the big cans.  I was mid lift in trying to dump it when it happened.  A rustling in the bushes.  And in case you are wondering YES it was exactly like t sounds!  Like a friggin horror movie!  I screamed and turned around.  I met its eyes.  Holy crap balls.  Its a friggin skunk.  I am going to die (aka get sprayed and hate life).  I actually experienced sheer terror.  I am by myself.  There is no help.  If this skunk decides that it is going to throw down, I am screwed.

I ran!  I ran to the back door.  IT CHASED ME TO THE DOOR.  OMG it chased me to the door.  So here I am, sitting in the dark, peering out of the window trying to plan how I am going to get my kitchen trash can back without meeting my demise by the hands (or butt) of a skunk.  This is really sad.  I don't care.  IT scared me and now it is holding me hostage.

If I don't blog tomorrow, you will know that I lost to the dreaded black and white villain that is currently taunting me from the bushes.

Amazing things happen when I am bored

I could not gt motivated today.  I did what was expected, but it was really hard to go that extra mile.  I did no Wii Fit this morning.  I did the minimum required at work.  I may or may not have browsed the internet.  But HOLY CRAP am I glad I did!  Look at this sweet little number I found!

So whatcha, whatcha, whatcha readin?

     I love to read.  I don't always have the time to read, but I love to hold a book in my hands, curl up on my little corner of the couch and really sink my brain fangs into a book.  I will read just about anything.  But the genre I hold near and dear are the stories of National and State Park Rangers.  I have no idea why.  I just love them!  The collections of stories and antidotes, the stories of loved ones and co-workers reflecting on a lost ranger, the life stories of rangers.  I eat them up!  They love their parks so much they are able to pain the most amazing pictures through their words.  I can see every grassy meadow, every snowy trail, every blazing hot desert campsite.  

     

     The funny thing is, when you give me my pick of which park I want to go to, it will be anywhere in the Pacific Northwest EVERY SINGLE TIME.  I love the lush green everything.  Its always a little overcast  which I love.  I am a pale skinned Ginger.  Me and the sun only barely get along, and even then its not for a very long period of time.  

     Whoa!  Tangent.  Back to the book!  I am currently reading The Last Season.  I am only about half way through, but I am hooked!  Its the stories and accounts of a back-country ranger in Yosemite/ King's Canyon.  It goes through his childhood growing up at the base of Half Dome in Yosemite and what his childhood was like, then merges into his adult life and becoming a ranger.  I am at the beginning of the section where his life starts to take a turn and misses radio check ins.  Isn't that the way most of these books go?  Life is rad!  I am a ranger now!  Oh crap that sucked!  Now I am missing!  I don't care, I love these books just the same.  Its more for the good memories and the stories of being a ranger than the sad parts.

     I always seem to pick up a book whenever we are in a park's visitor's center.  I walk in, and it's as if a tractor beam has captured me and is drawing me to the gift shop.  Past the shot glasses and spoons.  Past the travel mugs.  Past the plastic dinosaurs ( I have no idea why these are at almost every visitor's center we go to).  The books pull me in.  They ask me to pick them up and peruse their contents.  They entice me with their weird sawdust smell and promises of beautiful and true stories.  Then the Husbunny calls from across the shop snapping me out of my daze.  "Red!  NO!  Put it back."  And then its all about who is quicker, me to the cash register or Husbunny through the droves of meandering tourists.  This time I won, hence THIS post on THIS book.  

     I halfway recommend this book as I am only half way through it.  I know the whole thing is going to be good, but I can't just assume, now can I?

WWID: Weekend, What I Did

Hello all!

               I had a fantastic weekend! The Husbunny and I tried out a different Chinese restaurant in our 'hood, as we are notorious for going tot he same places over and over.  This place was called Minh Ky, and it was amazing!

I had the sweet and sour shrimp, and Husbunny had the combination seafood noodle soup and Peking duck.  Each dish was HUUUUGE and priced under $10 each.  Not too shabby!  The staff was super nice and they seemed to be family owned and operated establishment.  Everyone was super friendly, but you kind of have to be in a place so small.  There were only about 10-15 tables, but every chair had a butt in it.  I wasn't a big fan of his soup, it was a little too fishy for me.  Husbunny has loved living in the Little Saigon area of town and getting to know all the different foods and tastes that surrounds us.  He is a big supporter of fishcakes,  me- not so much.  I am an ova-pescatarian for health reasons, so we eat a lot of fish and eggs with our vegeta-meals.  He loves the chance to be able to eat something that walks or runs, ahahha!

     Sunday I met up with my friend David, who had texted me about the Greek Fair happening down the street from his house.  I was excited to try out a thrifted dress I hadn't had the opportunity to wear yet. (I am making an effort to be more girly).  I parked on Park (hahah) and walked the rest of the way there with David.

     In my n00b status of blogger-dom, I neglected to take photos of everything I saw!  The fair was in the parking lot of a Greek Orthodox church and they had the hole place carpeted with this sky blue AstroTurf.  It was both blinding and amazing all at the same time.

     David's fair-going procedures start with locating the nearest beer garden and making a plan from there.  We stood drinking our dark drafts in flimsy wee little cups (why do they do this to us at events?  Don't they know they are creating the perfect storm of me wearing half of my beer?)  and scoped out what our food options were.

I was hoping for some shrimp skewers and tabouli salad.   No dice.  We settled on spanikopita.  Oh man, it was so fresh and you could taste they made it with fresh spinach.  We were silent as we sat together at the table letting the buttery, flaky crust fall apart in our mouths.  This was real life food porn.  It was seriously good.

No, I am not wearing
white tights.
*SIGH*

     I had a moment of clarity about half way through that I should probably take a picture of this.  Sorry guys, you get a half eaten/ in process of being eaten picture of the gloriousness we shoveled into our faces that day.

And last but not least is the dress I had worn for the day.  It was a little strapless number I had thrifted.  I had David take the photo for me, but he forgot to add the shoes.  It's ok.  They were just grey converse.  No big whoop.  Me and heels have a love/hate relationship.  I love them.  They hate me.  So I usually wear flats.

Please excuse the goofy pose, the man made me take 3 or 4 shots before he was happy.  It was just a camera phone.  I did my hair all purdy like and everything.  I had a great time.

I don't know if this will be a weekly post, but I loved the WWID: Weekend, what I did, header.  It made me chuckle.

Day two, what's new with you?

200 lbs.  It looks like I ATE Santa!

    Here we are at day 2.  So far so good.  I am going to set up this story I am about to tell with a little bit of back story.
BACK STORY:  I was always on the thin side growing up.  "Skinny Minnie" "Bean Pole", you know, the normal stuff kids who are lanky get called.  I stayed pretty thin in my teens. All up until I turned 23, got some gnar gnar news about some family shiza, and discovered that drinking may or may not be cheaper than therapy.  I went from 120lbs to the ever so unattractive 200lbs that I toted around for about 6 years.  Gross right?  It was all sadness and depression weight.  I sobered up, found Roller Derby, plotted all the food I was shoveling into my face on a website called theDailyPlate.com, and got serious about trying get healthy.

Say hello to my favorite self!

  Roller Derby was a blast!  It really melted away the weight, it was fun, and I looked forward to it every week.  Let me just say right now that I am not a fan of the GYM.  Or anything that makes me sweat, really.  So this sport seems to be made just for me.  I did it for about 5 years then I got seriously injured at a game.  Didn't realize I was seriously injured, and went too long before seeing a doctor.  Shattered rib. AND....it never healed right. So I was given the choice of surgery so I can play derby again, or no contact sports and no surgery.  Duh, no surgery.  However I still ate like I was doing derby.

  Cut to 1 year ago.  I get what at the time I considered to be my dream job.  However I was over-worked and under paid.  That really wasn't a major concern.  I was happy to have A job.  The overworked part, however, kept me from being physical.  So the awesome 140lbs I was at, over the course of a year, turned into 165lbs.  On me, it looks pretty, well, hefty.

REAL STORY:   Ok here is the start of the real story I was going to tell.  I, the perpetual tomboy, have been wearing A LOT dresses to work.  No, I have not discovered my inner femininity.  My ass has spread out further than my work slacks will contain.  So there it is.  I have slowly snacked and munched my way out of pants.  This is not being taken lightly.  I only own so many dresses!  So back to The Daily Plate to count my calories.  Here is the kicker, for being sedentary (I hate that would, it makes me sound like a tectonic plate), I am only allowed to take in 1075 calories a day. A DAY FOLKS.  That's what I was eating in a sitting.  WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?!?!?!?  Well, it says if I do a physical activity, I can burn off calories, thus giving me "free" ones to consume during the day!  Hells yes!  I am in!  Wait.  I don't like to sweat. UGH!

    I have taken my good and trusty Wii (or the Netflix box as it was formally dubbed), dusted off the balance board, and got my (ever expanding) butt in gear with Wii Fit.  It has been exactly 5 days.  I do exactly 30 minutes worth on the Wii.  I maintain my allotted calorie intake.  I have lost 2 lbs as of today.

  WHAT?!?!?!  Yeah, you heard me.  2 lbs.  Watch out, I am going to back in those slacks just in time for the blazing summer heat of August.  Yeah, buddy!  This is what I have been obsessing about all week.  Pretty vain and shallow, huh?  Doesn't matter, I am still excited!

Hello. How ya doin?

Hello there!
        After reading so many beautifully written blogs, blogs after my own heart, blogs that made me laugh, made me want to be a girly-girl, blogs that made me feel that I not only knew the authors, but that I would love to be friends with them in real life, I thought, "hey, why not?"
        So here I am, all out there and stuff.  This is pretty scary, posting on the inter-webs, for all to see, and there forever to recall.  But maybe that's what I need.  A little life shaken, not stirred.  A little creative outlet.  A little "hey world, here I am, sorta".  Lets get this thing started!